Tilt

Social payment startup focused on crowd-funding

Description

Tilt company was a social payment startup. Groups and communities used their mobile app to crowdfund various events. College students, in particular, used the mobile app to crowdfund events and settle with friends. Tilt first big mission was when they have successfully secured fundraisers for a nonprofit organization. The company sought to replace the notion of only being able to share photos and videos on a social platform by introducing social digital cash exchange as the next big thing.

Stats

Category

Finances

Country

United States

Started

In 2012

Closed

By 2017

Number of Founders

Three

Name of Founders

James Beshara, Karolyn Baxter, Khaled Hussein

Number of Employees

Between 101 And 250

Number of Funding Rounds

4

Total Funding Amount

$62.1M

Number of Investors

26

Precise Cause of Failure

Lack of Focus

Business Outcome

Acquired

Cause of Failure

Tilt was valued at $375
million, but in less than two years of operation, it had lost over 95% of its
worth.

The CEO was a passionate
and charismatic person who believed in the power of online networks and
technologies. He was believed to become the next Zuckerberg and had strong
support from his investors. However, he wasn’t particular about growing the
company to become a sustainable business. At its height, Tilt employees were
living a posh lifestyle with beer on the office rooftop. During the employee’s
trips and hangouts, they were spoilt for choices, all paid for by the millions
of investors’ money which streamed into Tilt. The company finally run out of
capital to maintain its operations, went looking for a potential buyer and
found one in Airbnb. Airbnb bought the cash-strapped company for $12million in
2017.

A big resource for entrepreneurs and startup owners, in which we have collected and analyzed why +100 big companies have failed. Learn from mistakes, and avoid being part of the 90% of businesses that fail.

Tilt company was a social payment startup. Groups and communities used their mobile app to crowdfund various events. College students, in particular, used the mobile app to crowdfund events and settle with friends. Tilt first big mission was when they have successfully secured fundraisers for a nonprofit organization. The company sought to replace the notion of only being able to share photos and videos on a social platform by introducing social digital cash exchange as the next big thing.

Cause of Failure

Tilt was valued at $375
million, but in less than two years of operation, it had lost over 95% of its
worth.

The CEO was a passionate
and charismatic person who believed in the power of online networks and
technologies. He was believed to become the next Zuckerberg and had strong
support from his investors. However, he wasn’t particular about growing the
company to become a sustainable business. At its height, Tilt employees were
living a posh lifestyle with beer on the office rooftop. During the employee’s
trips and hangouts, they were spoilt for choices, all paid for by the millions
of investors’ money which streamed into Tilt. The company finally run out of
capital to maintain its operations, went looking for a potential buyer and
found one in Airbnb. Airbnb bought the cash-strapped company for $12million in
2017.